AND STmLINGSHIRE HUNT 



these weighings too — they seem to have taken 

 place at intervals of about a week — and from the 

 fact that they were made under a variety of cir- 

 cumstances, — some of them with "hunting cap, 



whip, &c.," others in " boots and thick ^ before 



breakfast," and others again in "flannel gown, &c.," 

 — may be read no little anxiety as to the story 

 which the scales would tell, and a consciousness of 

 the approaching end, — an event which may have 

 been hastened by those long rides to and from 

 hunting, and by the overtaxing of a constitution 

 not naturally of the strongest. On the 24th of 

 January 1810,^ within a few days of the last 

 entry in his diary, and within two of the last 

 weighing, Mr Kamsay's death occurred. The storm 

 had gathered and burst, and the Hunt had sustained 



^ One word illegible. 



2 "Jamiary 24th, at Barnton, in the 41at. year of his age, George 

 Ramsay of Barnton, Esq. — There have been few individuals whose 

 death has, at any time, excited a more lively and more universal 

 feeling of regret, amongst all ranks and conditions of men, in this part 

 of the country. AVith a vigorous and comprehensive understanding, 

 Mr Ramsay combined the most amiable and endearing dispositions of 

 mind ; while his princely fortune enabled him to give ample scope to 

 the display of his excellent qualities, and to evince himself at once a 

 generous friend, and a most valuable member of society. The loss 

 which his numerous friends and relatives have sustained by his death 

 is undoubtedly great, and will be long and deeply regretted ; nor will 

 the blank which has been created in the community, in consequence 

 of that afflicting event, be less severely felt and deplored. As an 

 active, public-spirited man, and promoter of improvements of every 

 kind, he was eminently distinguished among his contemporaries, and 

 has probably left few equals behind him. His sudden and unexpected 

 death, indeed, has spread a degree of gloom over the country, which 

 we scarcely remember to have witnessed upon any similar occasion. 

 He is succeeded in his extensive estates by an infant son." — Vide 

 ' Scots Magazine,' January 1810. 



59 



